Living: Storm gathering over wind farms

As turbines spring up across the Scottish landscape, Alastair Robertson asks whether they will blow an ill wind across house prices

A rash of wind farms is about to cover Scotland. Two years ago there were just four north of the border, now there are more than 120 in construction or at the planning stage. And while the opinions expressed about these giant wind turbines are mixed, they are always passionate.

The aesthetics and the noise might open the debate, but it is the effect wind farms have on the price of property nearby that causes concern. If you believe the likes of Jeremy Isaacs, the former chief executive of the Royal Opera House, who tried to prevent a wind farm being built within sight of his holiday home on Skye, you might expect them to be knocked for six.

The Scottish executive’s target is to generate 40% of Scotland’s energy from renewable sources by 2020. This means that 100 additional 42-megawatt wind farms, each with 21 turbines (some of them